Because Demotic began as "document writing", the largest group of Demotic texts is business: contracts, receipts, accounts, letters and petitions. But Demotic also has a rich literature, written when the hieroglyphic temples were still active under the Ptolemies and Romans.
Key idea
Demotic was used for contracts (sales, leases, marriage settlements), letters, tax receipts on ostraca, legal codes, religious and magical texts, and stories, like the tales of Setne Khamwas, and wisdom books, like the Instruction of Ankhsheshonq.
Why it works
A script used every day by thousands of scribes leaves a huge record. Demotic documents survive by the tens of thousands, many from towns in the Faiyum and Middle Egypt, where dry rubbish heaps preserved papyrus. They let historians follow real families through several generations: who married whom, who owned which field, who paid which tax.
| Text | What it is |
|---|---|
| Setne Khamwas and the Book of Thoth (Setne I) | a prince, modelled on Ramesses II's scholarly son Khaemwaset, steals a magic book from a tomb, and learns his lesson |
| Setne and Si-Osire (Setne II) | Setne's wonder-child son leads him through the land of the dead, where good and evil deeds are repaid |
| Instruction of Ankhsheshonq | a wisdom book of short, pithy sayings, set as advice written by a man in prison |
| Marriage and annuity contracts | agreements fixing a wife's property and maintenance |
| Tax receipts | short notes on ostraca recording that a tax was paid |
| Mummy labels | small wooden tags naming the dead, in the Roman Period |
Worked example: Why a story uses an old prince
The hero of the Setne tales, written down in Ptolemaic and Roman times, is based on Khaemwaset, a son of Ramesses II who lived about a thousand years earlier. Why use him?
- Khaemwaset was remembered as a scholar who restored old monuments: a natural hero for a story about ancient books and magic.
- Setting a story in a famous past gave it weight, as tales of King Arthur do in English.
- The tales tell us how Egyptians of the later periods saw their own past.
Answer: He was remembered as a scholar of the ancient past.
Worked example: Reading a family's life
A historian has a family's Demotic marriage contract, two land leases and ten tax receipts. What can she learn that a temple inscription could not tell her?
- Who married whom, and what property the wife brought or was promised.
- Which fields the family farmed, and what they paid.
- The real economy of ordinary people, not the ideals shown on temple walls.
Answer: The everyday economic and family life of ordinary people.
Common mistake
Thinking Demotic was only for business. It also has a rich literature: adventure tales, wisdom books, myths and religious texts.